As much as I love my fellow Pretty Girls, we don’t see each other so often, what with each of our hectic schedules and vastly different neighborhoods we reside in. Most of us might be in the same city, but that doesn’t mean it’s so easy to get together! As Johanna mentioned, regularly hanging out is a new goal of ours, and thus the first ever Pretty Girls Drunken Brunch of the Month was born. If anyone can do homemade brunch, it’s us!
For the inaugural edition I decided to use a gravalax recipe I’ve had for over a year but never found the right occasion to make it until now. Joh made scandalously good bagels and green pepper jelly and Bakezilla brought the prosecco and juices; a perfect trifecta of brunch.
I’ll leave it to her how she actually made such wondrous, bready delights but you can certainly have my gravalax recipe! It came out great, especially considering I’d never made it before!
Gravalax
- 1/4 filet salmon (it doesn’t have to be the highest quality, necessarily)
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- Handfuls of dill
- 1/2 tsp all spice (optional but recommended)
- Slices of fresh ginger or 1 tsp ground ginger (optional but recommended)
- Freshly ground black pepper
Debone the salmon, if necessary. Set aside. In a bowl, add the salt, sugar and optional spices together. Rub both sides of the filet with the salt mix. If there is skin, just rub the exposed side, or remove the skin and do both if preferred. Garnish each side with pepper and smother each side with dill, enough to cover the sides completely. Slice the salmon in half and fold together. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap then place in a ziplock bag and refrigerate for 48 hours minimum. The salmon should be weighted down and turned over every 12 hours. When it’s done, rinse off and pat dry with a paper towel. Slice, serve.
After all of us eating almost a dozen bagels fresh out of the oven, the entire plate of gravalax and consuming the whole bottle of prosecco, for having great times with friends on a lazy, brunchy Sunday, I deem the first round of PGDB to be a success!
Not to brag or anything, but my mom is a great cook. Really! If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then all the women in my neighborhood back home particularly fawn over the recipes for her brisket, salads, and stuffed grape leaves, all of which they have appropriated for their own meals (and then served back to us when our family comes over for dinner).
My mom also likes to send her scattered kids care packages on occasion. Imagine my surprise when a small box arrived at my doorstep the other day, no return address. There’s only one person who it could have been from. Inside, of all things, were brand new containers of spices, ginger, coriander and cumin, as well a (broken) bottle of light soy sauce. A note was included, written on the back of an envelope:
“Dear Rita,
Here’s a recipe inside for a wonderful marinade I made with tuna steaks — unbelievably good! Works with any fish and I imagine chicken and other stuff. Enjoy!!! XX I love you…. Mom”
That just about melted my heart. Tucked inside the envelope was the recipe.
Ginger-Soy Marinade
2 garlics [sic] crushed
2 slices ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
2 tsps sugar [or sage? Hard to read. Knowing my mom, it's sugar.]
Optional: 1 tsp chili powder
When I asked her about the recipe, she said for tuna steaks it only needs to marinade for 10 minutes, since the tuna absorbs sauces quickly. Upon my asking her to clarify whether that meant 5 minutes per side for 10 minutes total or 10 minutes each side, she said, “I don’t know, I don’t do things so exact.” It’s also good for chicken. Cook it on a grill pan and you’ve got yourself a tasty dinner.
This story doesn’t top what she sent my brother though! I’d love to see the look on his face when he opened his box and found… an eggplant along with a head of garlic and a can of chopped tomatoes for a simple eggplant salad, which we eat tossed with pasta or on its own as a side.
Eggplant salad
1 eggplant
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsps olive oil
2 plum tomatoes, diced
1 small can tomato sauce
2 tsps sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Dice the eggplant and soak in a bowl of cold water. Set aside for at least 10 minutes, then remove eggplant from bowl and squeeze out the excess water. In a large saucepan saute the garlic in olive oil until lightly browned, then add the tomatoes. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar on top, stir, and saute until soft. Add the eggplant, tomato sauce and the remaining sugar and salt and pepper to taste. Cover the saucepan and cook on a low heat, checking every 10 minutes or so until soft. Adjust salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Serve warm for best results, though it can be refrigerated for later.
Together, these two recipes will make for a delicious meal! Does anyone else’s mom send packages like these or just mine?
Tu B’shvat, the Jewish New Year for the trees, is next Saturday and I’m still unsure of my plans. Originally I had wanted to throw my own seder but it seems more and more like I won’t have the time (or money) to coordinate it! Luckily there are many excellent organizations having their own event but it’s usually for the best, I’ve found, to do things yourself. Or at least, it can be more fun that way.
Since Tu B’shvat is minor — the two Jewish cookbooks I own barely give it a paragraph, let alone specific recipes — and since it has been reinvented many times, I’m going to assume that as long as one sticks to the basic idea of the holidays as a New Year for the trees, then you can interpret and celebrate it any way you’d like, including what recipes to make!
One consistent custom, however, is to eat the seven species of fruit and grain mentioned in the Old Testament, which are wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates; all of which are healthy, flavorful and nutritious. Just mentioning these foods all together sounds so wholesome, doesn’t it? The reason there generally aren’t recipes for Tu B’shvat is because the above-mentioned foods tend to be eaten separately and not cooked, like nibbling on a bunch of grapes rather than eating something deglazed in red wine, say. That doesn’t mean we can’t come up with something, hmm?
If you’d like to combine them all into one dish for efficiency’s sake, it’s very easy to transform this into a salad:
Seven Species Barley Salad
Serves 4 – 6
- 1 cup pre-soaked hulled barley, cooked and cooled (see below)
- 3 teaspoons pomegranate juice
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 4 – 6 figs, quartered
- Handful of red grapes, halved
- 1/2 cup crumbled feta or gorgonzola cheese
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup Whole wheat croutons (see recipe below)
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
- Dates, sliced, for garnish
- Freshly ground black pepper
Note on the barley: though pearl barley is more common and takes faster to cook, the nutritious bran has been removed. In this way, pearl barley vs. hulled (complete) barely is like white rice vs. brown rice. If you want all the nutrition, go for the hulled, but you’ll need to pre-soak for many hours before cooking. Do this by placing the amount of barley desired in a bowl or container with double the amount of water and let sit on your countertop overnight. Done! You can even cook the barley in the water you soaked it in. Visit this website for more detailed info.
To boil barley: “The ratio of barley to water is 3 cups water for every 1 cup of barley. Over high heat, bring the barley and water, uncovered, to a boil. Cover, and reduce the heat to low. Allow the barley to simmer for 45 minutes. Do not add salt to your barley until AFTER it is cooked, since it can block absorption of water.
“Cooked barley will always retain some chewiness. You’ll know your barley is done when 20 percent of them have burst open. You can use the above method with non-pre-soaked barley too. Follow directions as above but cook for 1 1/2 – 2 hours instead.”
For the whole wheat croutons:
- Whole wheat bread
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Chopped fresh oregano, basil, thyme, or other favorite spices
Take a couple of slices of whole wheat bread and crumble into bite-sized pieces or smaller. In a small bowl combine oil and spices. Lightly coat the bread pieces in the mixture and place on baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees until crispy, a few minutes.
Ok, onto the recipe itself!
While the barley is cooling, in a small bowl, whisk together the pomegranate juice and a pinch of kosher salt. Add the olive oil and whisk to combine. Set aside.
Combine the barley, red bell pepper, figs, grapes, preferred cheese, croutons and sliced almonds. Add the dressing and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with date slices. Serve immediately or allow to sit in the refrigerator for up to 1 hour.
Important note: since I just made this up I haven’t attempted to make this recipe yet and I’m not sure if it works! Let me know if you try it yourself and tell me how it went! I suspect it needs lots of tweaking.
There are so many ways these seven ingredients can be combined! I’ll have more on that next week.
